This invention relates to preparing comestibles from at least one substance contained in a cartridge.
There are several reasons for employing cartridges to contain substances which enable the preparation of aqueous fluid comestibles, particularly beverages, including considerations of hygiene, optimal storage and keeping qualities of the material employed to produce the comestible, and including control of the quality and reproducibility of the comestibles prepared. Among available cartridges, which have found particular applicability for providing single servings of espresso coffees, cartridges which are sealed and which are opened under the effect of water injected under pressure satisfy the requirements mentioned above. In general, cartridges which contain substances for the preparation of fluid comestibles may be differentiated by their opening systems and ease of use and cost of manufacture.
Some known cartridges have, by design, weakened wall zones formed by preformed lines of weakening to effect preferential tearing under the effect of pressure introduced into the cartridge. This feature, however, has a disadvantage of increasing the complexity, and hence the cost, of the cartridge because the materials used have to be fabricated very precisely if opening of the cartridge is to be correct and reproducible. In addition, such cartridges generally are provided with a filter which is strong enough to retain a substance, such as coffee grounds, during an extraction process, which itself tends to be costly.
A cartridge extraction process and apparatus system described in French Patent No. 1.537.031 and French Patent Application Publication No. 2.033.190 involves, in a first phase, creating weakened zones in a face of a cartridge by mechanical action upon the face, after which, in a second phase, the effect of pressure of water injected in the cartridge results in rupturing the face at the weakened zones. This process, apparatus system and cartridge, however, are difficult to carry out and manufacture because of the requirement of movement by an apertured plate which, under the force of a spring, engages the face of a cartridge, which itself contains a cavity positioned between the face which is torn and a filter. As will be appreciated, the cartridge is difficult to manufacture and the process operations are delicate and difficult to control.
In addition, it is believed that, when proceeding in accordance with the process and apparatus system of those specified disclosures, the tearing of the face of the cartridge will not necessarily be sufficient to guarantee a regular flow of a liquid therethrough. In addition, it is believed that the maximum pressure in the cartridge is reached during opening of the cartridge. The subsequent pressure in the cartridge, therefore, is at most equal to the pressure which effects the opening, and that is fairly restrictive in terms of use for, in particular, preparing substances in single serving amounts which require extraction in a short period of time with small amounts of water. Thus, the substances are not extracted under a pressure sufficient to achieve a desirable and/or efficient extraction.
Accordingly, problems addressed by the present invention include how to obtain a high quality uniformly reproducible fluid comestible product from an economical carrying package and how to do so in a system which remains clean and which is easy to maintain, while utilizing the advantages of employing cartridges to contain substances for the preparation of fluid comestibles, including beverages.